Max Clifford: 'My Accusers Are Fantasists'

PR guru Max Clifford has said the women who accused him of indecently assaulting them were trying to ''cash in''.

At the start of his cross-examination, Clifford said the seven women who have made allegations against him were ''fantasists and opportunists'' who had '"told a pack of lies".

In a series of angry exchanges with prosecutor Rosina Cottage QC, he said the women had come forward after reading about the initial claims when he was first arrested.

Clifford told Southwark Crown Court: ''They saw opportunities and all took them.''

When asked why the women would have made up the claims, he said: "I don't know, I don't know them. All I know is that it's untrue.

"They saw an opportunity for compensation, opportunity to make something out of this in the current climate.

"That would be one of the main considerations," adding that "a lot of girls have come to my office these last 30, 40 years primarily for that reason."

He went on: "Compensation would have been the main thing - possibly they were fantasists, possibly they didn't like me, they see an opportunity, I don't know.

"What they are suggesting is totally untrue."

Max Clifford arrives at court on Friday

Ms Cottage referred several times to a copy of Clifford's biography which was on her desk and marked in several places with pink tabs.

Clifford said the last 15 months had been "very, very damaging for him and his family" and repeated several times the allegations were "totally untrue, all rubbish and nonsense".

Ms Cottage also suggested that Clifford had "destroyed or hidden" diaries from 1977-1978 and 1985 which would have been crucial to the case against him.

He said: "That's total lies and rubbish - I wouldn't have a clue where they were."

Diaries for subsequent years were recovered just before the start of the trial.

The prosecution claimed pictures which would have been useful to the case were not disclosed until after witnesses had testified.

The tense exchanges continued and at one point, when Ms Cottage said she would ''move on'', Clifford replied: "Thank goodness for that."

The trial has attracted significant media attention

The prosecution asked: "Do you think levity is appropriate?"

Clifford replied: "You keep asking me the same questions."

Clifford also told the court he had never told his wife of 40 years of his numerous affairs.

He told the court he "didn't think she would appreciate it" - prompting laughter in the public gallery.

He denied suggestions that his daughter Louise had lied for him to protect him.

He angrily told Ms Cottage that he had a ''wonderful relationship with my daughter based on love and devotion'.'

Questioned about ''legendary sex parties'' that were mentioned in his book, Clifford said they were ''good honest filth''.

He said he attended several with screen siren Diana Dors.

When asked where the women came from for the parties he said: "The girls found me, they called and said 'can I come and can I bring my sister, mother and aunt?'"

He insisted that there were "no drugs" at the parties and "none of the women were ever forced to do anything they didn't want to - they were old enough to know what they were doing".

Clifford agreed the girls were "beautiful and randy" but he denied prosecution suggestions that he "groomed them" or offered them contracts in return for sex.

He also revealed that as a teenage reporter living in Morden in the early 1960s he put on blue movie nights in a room above The Crown pub.

Clifford said: "The films were supplied to me by the police, it was a way of making extra money. They were every two or three months."

The 70-year-old from Hersham, Surrey, denies 11 counts of indecent assault between 1966 and 1984 on seven girls and women.

The trial continues.

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Police: Body Found Is Missing Teen Nida Naseer

A body recovered on Thursday is that of teenager Nida Naseer who went missing near her home in Newport last December, police say.

More follows...

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Hostages Free After Taliban Kabul Siege

Afghan security forces have said a siege on a Kabul guesthouse, used by foreigners, is over after the last remaining Taliban gunman was killed.

A security force spokesman confirmed on Friday that all five attackers holed up inside the building had been killed.

Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of 111 Military Corps Kabul, said the militants detonated several suicide bombs while gunmen stormed the guesthouse, which was being used by a US-based anti-landmine aid group.

They held at least four foreigners hostage for several hours while a gun battle with police ensued.

Afghan police arriving on the scene

At least one Afghan child was killed in the attack.

There are thought to have been no foreign casualties.

A witness at the scene saw people being escorted from the building by security forces.

Gunfire and explosions could be heard during the assault which officials said started with a large car bomb at the building's entrance.

Police took guests away

The Taliban, who said they were behind the attack, said the guesthouse was also used as a church.

The assault comes three days after Taliban militants stormed an office of the Independent Election Commission in Kabul, killing five people.

The militants have promised a campaign of violence to disrupt the ballot for the presidential election on April 5, urging their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces in the run-up to election day.

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Newlywed Who Pushed Husband Off Cliff Jailed

A bride who had doubts about her eight-day-old marriage and then killed her husband by pushing him off a cliff has been jailed for 30 years.

The judge in Missoula, Montana, told Jordan Graham she showed no remorse and "did not have the human capacity to feel the wrongfulness of what she'd done".

Graham, 22, said on the day her husband Cody Johnson died last July, the couple had driven to Glacier National Park and then walked to the cliff face.

She then told him she was not happy and "wasn't sure we should be married".

Mr Johnson, 25, then responded by grabbing her hand, she claimed, adding she thought he was going to pull her.

"I told him to let go and I pushed his hand off," Graham said.

She said she "just pushed his hand off and just pushed away", with one hand on his arm and one on his back.

Graham pictured at an earlier court hearing

The defendant had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder but then tried to withdraw her plea last December.

She claimed prosecutors were going back on an agreement by seeking a life sentence.

But US District Judge Donald Molloy denied the request. He sentenced Graham to 30 years in prison with no chance for early parole, followed by five years of supervised release.

Graham broke down in tears before sentencing as she began her address to the judge, saying she still loved the husband she killed.

"A day doesn't go by I don't think about what happened and why I didn't make different decisions," she said.

"It was a moment of complete shock and panic. I have no other explanation."

She also apologised to Mr Johnson's mother as well as her own family. But the judge indicated he had continuing doubts about her honesty.

"There's only one person in this room that knows what happened, and I don't think she's been entirely truthful about what happened," Judge Molloy said.

Graham had initially told investigators her husband left their house with unknown friends and showed police a fabricated email from a 'friend' saying he was dead and the search should be called off.

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Missing Flight: BA Sorry For Indian Ocean Ad

British Airways has said sorry for an advert urging people to escape the commute and "discover the Indian Ocean" amid the missing plane mystery.

The ill-timed advert was spotted on an escalator at a London underground station and posted on Twitter, quickly going viral.

The picture of the advert - taken by Alan Milford - has now been viewed more than one million times.

Alan Milford's initial tweet BA responded after the picture went viral

The text "Escape the commute and discover the Indian Ocean" is overlaid on a picture which appears to have been taken underwater.

After spotting the advert, Mr Milford, 29, tweeted: "Unfortunate advertising from BA up the escalators at Euston."

The advert ran on a video screen at the tube and rail station as the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues.

There were 239 people on board the plane which is feared to have crashed somewhere in the vast Indian Ocean.

Map shows the search area in the Indian Ocean

The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia early on March 8 and had been expected to make a six-hour trip to Beijing in China.

BA has tweeted an apology, explaining the advert "contained pre-scheduled content that we recognise is inappropriate at this time".

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Student To Be Deported To Mauritius On Sunday

Student Yashika Bageerathi is to be deported to Mauritius alone on Sunday - as the number of people campaigning to keep her in Britain topped 142,000.

The 19-year-old will fly back to the Indian Ocean island at 5pm on Mother's Day.

The cases of her mother and siblings are being dealt with separately, meaning she will travel on her own.

Miss Bageerathi came to Britain in 2011 from Mauritius on a tourist visa to escape domestic violence.

The student arrived with her sister and brother to live with her mother, who had fled in 2009.

Campaigners march to prevent the deportation

On Monday, barristers took an injunction to the High Court asking for her to be allowed to at least finish her A-Levels and be with her family, but the case was rejected.

She was initially due to leave Britain on Tuesday afternoon without her mother, sister and brother - but was given a last-minute reprieve.

A high-profile campaign apparently led to British Airways not accepting her on a flight from Gatwick Airport.

But the family's celebrations were short-lived when just hours later, the teenager's mother was informed that her own application for asylum had also been rejected by the Home Office.

It meant that she too would have to leave the country with her other two children.

At the weekend, Miss Bageerathi's fellow London students, teachers and neighbours staged a protest march to the Home Office.

An online petition calling on Home Secretary Theresa May to stop the deportation has collected more than 142,000 signatures.

The teenager's school principal, Lynne Dawes, has been a figurehead in the campaign since her pupil was taken into Yarl's Wood  immigration detention centre, in Bedfordshire.

The Air Mauritius flight is due to take off at 5pm on Sunday.

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Porn Websites Watched By Thousands Of Children

By Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

Pornography websites should have to ask users to prove they are over 18, according to new research from the online video regulator.

The Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD) found up to 6% of children aged 15 or under access adult websites.

The online habits of 45,000 desktop PC and laptop users were monitored for a month, and what the regulator found will startle most parents.

Adult websites were accessed by 3% of primary school children, the study found.

If scaled up nationally, the research suggests 200,000 under-16s had accessed pornographic material - that includes 44,000 primary school children.

Because the study did not include smartphone or tablet use, this is probably a conservative estimate.

Pornography sites registered in the UK must already check users' ages with credit card details or other personal information against a database.

But ATVOD said the majority of adult material accessed by children was hosted by foreign businesses, which it does not regulate.

It proposes that all adult sites request a licence, granted only if they sign up to age verification.

If they do not, credit and debit card services would prevent payments being made to the sites by UK citizens.

"We do not advocate censorship," said ATVOD chair Ruth Evans.

"The Government needs to act urgently with a range of measures to protect children from this content.

"Key among them is legislation to make it possible for the UK payments industry to prevent funds flowing from this country to websites which allow children to access hardcore pornography."

The call to regulate follows the adoption of an "opt-in" pornography filter by internet service providers last year.

Critics say regulatory solutions do not address the problem.

Ben Yates, who writes for Sex and Censorship, said there are "social, cultural and personal problems that cannot simply be fixed by a limp firewall or law".

"This proposal, along with many other Government backed ideas on stopping children watching porn, simply fails before it begins."

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Hague And Jolie Hail Anti-Rape Military Action

Bosnia's decision to include rape prevention in military training has been hailed as "groundbreaking" by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.

The pair said it should become standard for all armed forces serving in UN peacekeeping missions.

They were attending a conference on sexual violence in conflict in Sarajevo on Friday as part of their two-year joint campaign to end the use of rape as a weapon in war zones.

Ms Jolie - a special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees - described the move to train international peacekeepers to protect civilians from sexual violence as "inspiring".

She said the action was "redefining soldiering in the 21st century".

"As soldiers you understand the pain war inflicts on women and children, and why they must be protected," she said.

Mr Hague said Britain would support the city's Peace Support Operations Training Centre and said the training would "give service men and women the skills to make a real difference".

"Often sexual violence continues even when the guns have gone silent, used as a cowardly tool to settle scores or undermine the peace," he said.

"Preventing and responding to these crimes is essential to the fundamental mission of any peace-keeping force, which is to protect civilians.

"Yet because rape has unjustly been considered a 'lesser' crime, because it has only recently been understood as a method of warfare, and because an unfair stigma keeps victims silent, peace-keeping forces have only just begun to consider preventing sexual violence as part of their mandate and their responses to it are still evolving."

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Dave Lee Travis Charged With Indecent Assault

Dave Lee Travis is to be charged with one count of indecent assault, weeks after being cleared of 12 separate counts of indecent assault.

Travis was cleared of 12 charges of indecent assault earlier this year but two charges remained undecided. At Southwark Crown Court today he heard he will now be charged with a further count of indecent assault.

Prosecutor Miranda Moore told the court today that the former DJ is expected to face a trial on the two outstanding charges.

Metropolitan Police investigated the former DJ as part of Operation Yewtree, the force's investigation into allegations of historic sexual abuse by high-profile figures after details of Jimmy Savile's past crimes emerged.

In February he described the decision by prosecutors to seek a retrial for him as a "nightmare".

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Missing Plane: Image Shows Objects In Sea

Australian authorities have released an image taken by search planes looking for missing flight MH370 in a new area in the Indian Ocean.

The image shows two apparently white objects, one rectangular and one circular, floating in the sea inside a new search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

A tweet from the Australian Marine Safety Authority (AMSA) said a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft first spotted the objects on Friday.

The sightings, which AMSA said included two rectangular objects that were blue and grey - among the colours of the missing plane - will need to be confirmed by personnel on board ships involved in the search.

That is expected to take place on Saturday when the Chinese Maritime Administration patrol ship Haixun 01 moves into the area.

Search aircraft flown from an airbase near Perth spotted the objects

It comes after the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane shifted due to data suggesting it was travelling faster than previously thought.

Analysis of radar information from before contact with flight MH370 was lost indicated the plane was burning up fuel more quickly and may not have travelled as far south over the Indian Ocean.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau described the data, which came from analysis by Boeing, as the "most credible lead to where debris may be located".

Search teams have been relocated to scour an area 685 miles northeast of the zone they had been operating in.

A new area is being searched after analysis of MH370 data

Some 10 aircraft, including nine military planes, are involved, and six ships are being sent to the region.

Experts will also trawl through satellite images of the new search zone to identify any possible crash sites.

During a news conference on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian authorities said the search in the Indian Ocean could shift to a deep sea search and salvage if no sign of the missing plane was discovered before the 30-day life of its black box battery.

The search is now nearly three weeks old and the operation has had to be called off twice due to bad weather.

Acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the new search area "could still be consistent with the potential objects identified by various satellite images" because of ocean drift.

Professor Chris Bellamy, a maritime security expert at the University of Greenwich, said it was not surprising that the search area continues to change.

He told Sky News: "In that time (since satellite images), with a current of approximately three knots the debris could have drifted that distance.

"We may be talking about a load of debris floating in the area that they have been searching just before they moved the area and an impact in the new area.

"It doesn't totally surprise me that it's taken them so long to refine the search and decide that the plane probably went in further north."

Search teams are using 10 planes in an attempt to find missing flight MH370

The development comes after images from a Thai satellite showed 300 objects ranging from two to 15 metres in size scattered in the sea about 1,700 miles southwest of Perth.

A French satellite spotted more than 120 objects floating in the ocean, while Japan is also reported to have captured aerial images of 10 items.

It is not known whether any of the objects are from the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8 as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The plane is thought to have crashed with the loss of all 239 people on board after flying thousands of miles off course.

Prayers and messages of support left on a wall at Kuala Lumpur airport

Distraught relatives of the 150 Chinese passengers on board the plane continue to voice their anger and frustration at the speed of the investigation.

Some Chinese insurance companies have started paying compensation to the families, according to the state news agency.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, has been asked about the psychological testing of pilots employed by the airline.

He said: "They do psychological tests when they take new pilots on. That is something we check yearly and six-monthly, depending on how old they are, through an interview with aviation doctors."

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